After two rounds of practice for the Mustang Challenge North America round at VIRginia International Raceway, Sandy Satullo and Wheelhouse Motorsports finished with the fastest time heading into Qualifying.
In Practice 1 this morning, Cole Loftsgard in the #42 Round 3 Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse R topped the timing sheets with a 1:57.906, the only driver to break the 1:57s.
Will Lucas in the #34 Wheelhouse Motorsports car set the second-quickest time with a 1:58.192, 0.286 seconds off Loftsgard. Will Lucas had a tough weekend last time out at Watkins Glen, finishing ninth and seventh rather than fighting for podium places. He showed some good pace in the first session of the weekend, keeping in touch with the championship leader.
The #7 machine of Satullo, Devin Anderson in the #22 TechSport Racing car, and newcomer Ethan Low in the #25 Flying Lion Motorsports car finished out the top five in the Dark Horse class, all in the mid 1:58s, and set their times in the middle of the 30-minute session.
Chris Clarke, driving the #9 Paley Motorsport with AAG Racing car, was the fastest Dark Horse Legends driver on track; his time of 2:01.946 was 0.181 seconds quicker than Watkins Glen victor-on-debut, Oleg Gorshkov in the #70 Round 3 Racing car. Paolo Salvatore in the #84 Torre Racing Mustang was third-quickest in class.
The first session of the weekend was red-flagged and finished with five minutes remaining when Joseph Dederichs’s #63 Wheelhouse Motorsports car was noted for entering the pit lane with fire coming from his exhaust, ending his session.
Practice 2 got underway in dry conditions after some rain hit VIR around noon between practices. Satullo was the fastest overall with a 1:57.327, beating Loftsgard’s time in Practice 1 for fastest of the day. Loftsgard would finish the session with a 1:58.281 to go second fastest, almost a second off of Satullo.
Satullo would only log four laps before bringing the #7 car behind the wall 13 minutes into the session. His teammate Joseph Dederichs in the #63 Wheelhouse car failed to set a time in Practice 2, presumably because the car needed some work after the incident just a few hours earlier.
Points leader Tom Tait in the #8 Wheelhouse Motorsports car was fastest of the Dark Horse Legends class after finding himself off the pace in the first session of the day. Oleg Gorshkov was once again in the mix, finishing the session second ahead of Nicholas Smither in the #58 Nick Smither Racing machine.
Qualifying is up next at 6:45 PM ET; Race 1 will take the green flag at 9:25 AM ET Saturday morning.
Feature image © Ford
